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Saturday, July 31, 2010

Welcome to the August Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!! If you came here from Brae's blog, you're on the right track.

This month we are featuring D1424 Something Splendid (set of 13 stamps).

Stamping Tips:

The large flower featured in this set is a "base and shade" stamp, meaning you can stamp the base in one color and then stamp the the shade in a deeper tone to add depth and detail.

Sometimes it can be a little tricky to figure out how to line the stamps up so here's my tip. Place two blocks side by side. Remove the stamps from the carrier sheet and place one on each block, being careful not to shift the angle of the stamp. If you place both images on the block similarly and pay attention to how you angle the blocks when you stamp, it will make it much easier to line up the images. (Hopefully that makes sense... maybe I need to may a video?

Next up on the hop is Nancy Brown. Head on over to see what beautiful work she came up with...

Thursday, July 29, 2010

I bet you thought I forgot about the dear old Wishes Project.... I didn't really forget, I just got unorganized!! If you've been following closely, you might notice that I skipped a few....ooops... I'm pretty sure I actually made all of the cards. Some of them might have been on my convention boards. I know I sent one to corp when I applied to teach... I plan to go through my photos and figure it all out soon, but in the mean time I need to start getting them posted!!

So without further ado.. here is Number 22 Simple Expression and Number 23Three In A Row.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Had a great meeting with my team last night. I shared all the bundles of product I earned by teaching at convention, we talked about all the cool things that are coming soon, chatted, ate, created and had fun!

Soooo...I'm a closet dancer...LOL.. Love to dance. Grew up taking tap, ballet, jazz. Cheered in high school... I routinely dance around my house and am addicted to So You Think You Can Dance. Love it!!

Imagine my excitement when there was a little dancing at the CTMH convention! First we were treated to the adorable dance in the youtube video below - All the Scrappin Ladies.. And then they set-up the wii at the end of banquet and we played Just Dance. Too fun!! I made a fool of myself and loved every minute of it. It was fun to see a whole room of women doing the dances I routinely do in my living room.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Woo Hoo! It's like Christmas at my house right now...except it's hotter than any Christmas I remember! As much as I wanted to open my bundles from convention, I just couldn't. I had to stay focused on my workshop. I opened the top and pulled out one stamp set to use as a giveaway, and then quickly closed it back up lest I be tempted.

At convention I taught "But Wait, There's More" and it was all about the Workshops on the Go (WOTG). I love, love, love the WOTG and use them every month with my customers so I shared some ideas about how to organize, promote and use the WOTG.

I didn't have enough new products to complete the six boards I was assigned AND create some items for my table so I used the Zippidee WOTG. Here are a couple of the projects I made with the materials I had left over after creating all of the workshop projects.

We eat a lot of peanut butter at our house.... I used this jar for the raffle tickets at my workhop, but I'm thinking about turning it into a bank to save for convention next year since it is at the Disneyland Hotel!!!!! So exciting!! (Obviously I need to fix the lid a bit... it didn't travel too well and I didn't notice until I looked at the picture...oops!)

Next up... I used the My Creations Memory Showcase (6x6) to create a cd holder (detailed pictures and tutorial coming soon!). What a great way to share a cd of photos with someone you traveled with... or to keep a back-up from your computer!

And since I was going with the Mickey Mouse theme, I decided to put together a little treat bag and goodie that could be used at a party.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

(Sung to the tune of My Boyfriend's Back and You're gonna be in trouble...)

Ok, so I'm typing this early in the morning and technically my box won't arrive until sometime later today when I'm at work, but I've had this silly little song rolling around in my head. I guess I'm excited to get my convention artwork back, eh?

And as if that wasn't enough excitement for one Close To My Heart consultant, my new product is on it's way too! It's going to be like Christmas at my house soon.

Thank goodness I have a few things to keep me busy while I'm waiting.

Take pictures of artwork tonight

Bike Ride tomorrow

Finish prep and goodies for Saturday's workshop

Saturday I'll be hanging with my buds at my workshop

Sunday is church and hopefully I'll edit a couple of videos I shot

And then Monday, Monday, Monday... hmmm...maybe I'll play with goodies on Monday....

And now here are a few random pictures from DC... first up... a totally unattractive but fun picture of me on the plane with my buddy Gail! We took about five of these photos. LOL What can I say...we were bored and we were on a plane for a VERY, VERY, VERY long time... (we spent about two hours on the runway waiting to take off. Joy!)

My good friend Heather was so sweet! I pointed out the totally decadent kettle chip creation on the Cadillac Ranch menu so she ordered it and forced me to try them. (friend or foe...hmmm... LOL. I got a taste and didn't eat the whole plate so I'm thinking friend!) Oh my!! They were delicious. And check out the "wedge" salad in the background. I do believe that is a whole head of lettuce. LOL.

Sunset in National Harbor... I'm directionally challenged and all I could see is water so I guess the sun sets over the water on the East Coast too. LOL

The tour bus driver for one of the tours our roomies did, suggested an inexpensive organic place to eat. Since sandwiches were $9 at the hotel, it was quite refreshing to get a burger and fries for less than that!! And it was all organic too. Organic does mean low calorie, right? I got my burger wrapped in lettuce so I could have some fries. Of course some of my table mates tried to say that since the fries were fried in olive oil they were low-cal too...hmmmm...

But seriously, my burger was absolutely delicious, so if you visit National Harbor, check out Elevation Burger.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Biking the Mt. Vernon trail sounded so peaceful and fun when I found the info on the internet. What a great way to see DC. 18 miles? Easy, peasy.... Well little did I know that DC would be overtaken by a record breaking heat wave with high humidity. Thankfully my buddies and I were dedicated to the idea. Dedicated or Crazy...hmmmm.....

We took a shuttle over to Old Town Alexandria and then walked down King Street to the bike shop. Our first clue that this was going to be a difficult ride should've been when we were way too excited about going into a Walgreens for a few minutes because it was air conditioned.

A few blocks after hopping on our bikes, we turned onto the trail and it was absolutely beautiful!! I can only imagine what it would look like in the fall. It was a nice, easy ride, but the heat was really working us!

At one point we stopped at a map to see if there was someplace nearby to stop, get out of the heat and get something to eat. A local rider stopped and suggested that we head over to the National Horticulture Society, pick up some water and turn back! Yep, it was so bad that a complete stranger told us it was time to turn back. :-)

We met James at the Horticulture Society and he escorted us to their kitchen and hooked us up with ice water. He invited us to stay in the a/c as long as we needed and shared a little of the history of River Farm.

After we cooled off we headed back and found that....it was all downhill. We practically coasted the whole way back to the bike shop. Once we turned the bikes in, we had just enough time to grab a bite to eat before we took the water taxi back to National Harbor.

It wasn't quite the ride I had pictured in my head and I would've loved to go all the way up to Mt. Vernon...but there's not much you can do when it's 104 degrees and you're on the verge of heat stroke... I'll have to save the rest of the trail to ride another day.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Hi there everyone. Now that convention is over I can give you a little peek into what my life was like for a while.... Some of you already know that I was one of 32 teachers selected to teach at Extravaganza at our Convention in Washington DC. It was a huge honor and I loved every minute of it! But it did mean that I was a little busy for a while...

My class was called - But Wait, There's More and it focused on the awesome Workshop on the Go Kits. I shared tips on how to use the kits, how to promote it to your customers, how to run the workshop and other little tips that I've learned along the way.

I was sent two new WOTG kits, some accessories and some My Stickease and I had about two weeks to create six boards. I told you...it was a whirlwind.... In addition I chose to take some of my Zippidee samples to use in my booth so I had to keep all those projects top secret for a while too....

So now, I'm home and I'm ready to post, but my artwork is in transit between DC and here... ooops... While I'm waiting for my goodies to arrive, I'll share a few pictures from convention...

Here are all the goodies I received for FREE at convention except the cool bag. I forgot to put it in the picture! We received all 8 of the new stamp pads, several stamp sets and a small sampling of accessories to use on our create and take projects.

Here's a picture of the artwall outside my booth. I was even able to bring the sign home on the airplane! Josh saw the sign and said "how did you get that home?" It was a little awkward, but the flight attendants were very helpful and let me take it on the plane!

I always forget to have someone take a picture when I teach so this year I put my camera front and center on my table so I could ask someone to take a picture during my first class!

And here are pictures of my first class...

And here is a goofy picture with of me and Corina (one of my roomies)... Hello Kitty, Heart Shaped Glasses....could it get any better than that?

Stay tuned, I have more to share... including pictures from the hottest bike ride I have ever gone on? Who rides a bike in record breaking heat with high humidity? Me. It was a little insane, but we survived and now I have bragging rights.